The Interview
by Fire The Canon
Summary: Daniel Stebbins works for the Daily Prophet, and is also a member of the Order. His big break, and a mission assigned by Dumbledore, is to question Tom Riddle's very first target - Dennis Bishop.


_**Written for the 335 Pairing Bonanza Challenge (Dennis Bishop/Stebbins)**_

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**The Interview**

"Daniel Stebbins, reporter for the _Daily Pro – _er, _Daily News Weekly._"

A rather rotund woman looked up from a large book and to Daniel who stood before her. He was dressed in a suit and tie with a notebook in hand. She appeared as if she had not changed her clothes for a week.

"And?" She looked at him indignantly, as if his presence had just ruined her day.

Fumbling, Daniel dug into a suit pocket and extracted an identification card. It said he was from an aspiring newspaper company which was trying to find its feet in Britain. All organised by the Ministry of Magic.

The woman looked at the card for just a second, clicking her tongue, and returned the card to Daniel. "And you're here because?"

Daniel cleared his throat. "I'm here to speak to Mr Bishop. An interview has been scheduled. I spoke to someone just yesterday."

The woman had already lost interest in his story. "Mr Bishop does not speak to anyone," she informed him. "You have wasted your time in coming. Good day, Mr Stevling."

"Stebbins."

The woman answered the phone which was ringing endlessly beside her.

Daniel sighed. This was supposed to be his big break. He was going to interview the man who had first been targeted by Lord Voldemort. He was going to find out what he knew in the hope of helping the case.

He was just about to leave when a middle-age man came through the corridor, walking directly towards Daniel.

"Mr Stebbins?" he asked.

Daniel stopped, nodding. "Yes, sir," he said.

The man smiled. "This way," he instructed, and indicated the corridor in which he had just come.

The place he had come to was almost identical to St. Mungo's. The halls were bustling with Muggle Healers, yet everything was quiet and morbid. The man he was following didn't speak as he led him to the place he was certain Dennis Bishop would be.

Eventually, they reached a small room that contained only three other people, all above sixty years of age. There was an elderly woman who sat in a wheelchair with a book in her lap, and two men. One of those men were dozing in the corner while the other was staring out the window with a blank expression on his face.

Finally, the man turned to him. "My name is Oliver Jones," he introduced. Daniel stuck out his hand to shake it. "This place cares for people of all ages, and this is the room where most of the elderly come to enjoy their days. This acts as both a retirement home and a care facility. Dennis," he pointed to the man who was staring out the window, "Is an unusual case. He came to us as a child, from an orphanage. Something strange happened whilst he was there and he has barely spoken since."

Daniel nodded, swallowing. Yes, he knew of all that.

Oliver looked at him curiously. "Are you sure you'd like to go through with this.

Daniel nodded again. This was his big break, and he had a wife and a newborn at home. They needed some money to survive.

"Alright," Oliver said. "But if he doesn't speak…." He indicated that Daniel could go to Dennis, which he did.

Cautiously, he approached the older man and cleared his throat. Dennis didn't so much as blink. "Ex-excuse me, Mr Bishop," he began. "I'm from the _Daily Pro-News Weekly_, and I was wondering if it was possible to ask you a few questions. I believe Oliver spoke to you about this earlier?"

Again, there was no response. Daniel pulled up a chair and sat facing the man. Outside the window were a bunch of children playing, some of whom appeared as if they may never have a normal life. Daniel thought of his own son back home and shook his head. He would do everything in his power to make sure his child never grew up like that.

Despite getting no reaction he continued. He had prepared a set of questions before coming, subtle, but would help him learn of what had happened all those years ago. "So, am I correct in saying that you were in an orphanage as a child?"

Again, nothing.

"Wool's Orphanage? You knew a Tom Riddle there?"

Saying the name was the first reaction Daniel received. The man before him flinched and his eyes clouded over with the pain of his memory.

"Sir, do you mind if you could tell me a little bit about him?"

For a moment Daniel thought the man wasn't going to reply again, for he continued to watch the children out the window. However, with a pale face and wrinkles that surpassed his actual years, he turned to look at the younger man before him. "You want to know about Tom Riddle?" he asked in a deep, husky voice.

Daniel nodded, getting his quill and notebook ready.

Dennis studied both items. "You're one of them." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand, Mr Bishop," Daniel answered innocently. He had been under strict orders from Dumbledore to pose as a Muggle.

"Tom… he had one of those things." Dennis indicated the quill. "And he could do strange things… _magic _things."

Daniel swallowed. "Sorry, I don't know what you're –"

"You don't have to hide it. I won't tell anyone. You're obviously here about that day I went into the cave with him."

"That… that is something I wish to ask you about," Daniel agreed.

"I don't remember much about it." Dennis shifted in the armchair he was sitting in. His eyes glanced briefly out the window again, before returning to Daniel. "He had Amy and I in some kind of trance. It was almost as if he was controlling our minds and we couldn't say no to him."

Daniel nodded, scribbling whatever Dennis was saying into his notebook. "Do you remember _anything _from that day, Mr Bishop?" he wanted to know.

Dennis thought about it for at least a minute before replying. "I simply remember being led to a cave and Tom instructing me to… he wanted me to spill my blood on the wall of the cave."

Daniel wrote that down.

"He didn't tell me why, or seemed interested in answering questions. He told me to do it and I did as he requested. He said he'd kill me if I didn't."

"You mention an Amy," Daniel said, a hint of questioning in his tone.

Dennis nodded, his expression saddening at the thought. "Yes, Amy was with me. I am not entirely sure what Tom did to her but I suppose she faired better than me in the end. She married and had children last I heard."

"What was her full name?"

"Amy Benson," Dennis said. "She was lovely. Parents abandoned her because she wasn't a boy. They already had four girls." He bowed his head.

"I'm sorry." Daniel wrote the name down. He'd give it to Dumbledore once he returned.

"Why are you here?" Dennis asked after a few moments of silence. "You're obviously like Tom."

"Please never say that."

"You have magic, yes?"

"I am not, and never will be, like Tom Riddle," Daniel said flatly.

"Then why are you here?"

Daniel thought back to Dumbledore's specific instructions. _He cannot know about the wizarding world_. But that had been before they had met. Dumbledore had assumed Dennis would not know. Sighing, he set his quill and notebook to the side. "What I tell you cannot leave this conversation," he instructed. "_Ever_."

Dennis glanced out the window again, looking at the children play, and nodded. "Very well," he agreed.

"This man you once knew as Tom Riddle is no more."

"He's dead?"

Daniel shook his head. "He now goes by the name of Lord Voldemort; a very dark wizard who enjoys killing for sport. He was said to be unstoppable, more powerful than any other wizard. But…."

"Yes?" Dennis asked.

"Just a week ago, on Halloween night, Voldemort went to the house of a couple I attended school with. They had a son, a bit over one year. He murdered both the couple with a few words. He went to murder the boy too, but… well… the boy survived. No one has ever survived such a curse before, let alone a baby. Voldemort was killed that night."

The glint in Dennis' eyes showed he was fascinated by the story, and believed every word.

Daniel shook his head. "Anyway, the point is, I am here to find out about this Tom. To work out how to stop him."

"Stop him? You said he was dead."

Daniel shook his head again. "Not completely. He'll come back, and when he does, we need to be ready. We thought a good start would be looking back into his childhood."

Dennis became silent again after that, his eyes returning to the window. Daniel picked up his quill and parchment once more.

After a moment, Dennis spoke again. "There is one other thing I remember," he said. "When Tom took us to that cave, he spoke a language I didn't understand. It was strange, almost not a language at all."

"Can you make a guess?" Daniel questioned.

Dennis nodded. "I can," he said. "I can make a guess, because it was in that moment that I snapped out of the daze Tom had me in. I turned around and before him was a snake. I can't tell you what he was saying, but he was talking to the snake and it obliged to his commands. That was when I ran. That was when I knew something was definitely different with Tom."

Daniel wrote frantically on the parchment. A Parseltongue? Of course!

"That is all I can tell you," Dennis said. "It's all I know from that day."

"Do you know why Tom was in that cave that day?" Daniel tried anyway.

"No. I know nothing more." Dennis' expression said that that was the end of the interview.

"Very well," Daniel said. "I thank you, Mr Bishop. Your information has been most helpful." He held out his hand for the older man to take, but it seemed that Dennis' attention had fully returned to the children playing outside.

Gathering his things Daniel was escorted back through the corridors by Oliver.

"You got what you needed?" the man asked.

"I think so," Daniel said.

"I'm amazed he talked to you so much. He has not spoken that much since I have been here."

Daniel only nodded. "Well," he said. "He talked because I was the first to ask him about what he needed to talk about." He left after that, ready to report to Dumbledore. Surely the Hogwarts headmaster would be able to decipher something from the information he had been given.

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_**Harry Potter wiki says there were two Stebbins - one in Marauders' Era, one in Trio. I chose to use the Stebbins from Marauders, gave him a first name, and included him in the Order of the Phoenix :) This was interesting to write, and I enjoyed it. I hope you all enjoyed reading it.  
**_


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